september2021 - 15

THE MILLENNIAL ADVISOR
DO I REALLY WORK
GARRETT WAGNER, CPA
CEO/Founder, C3 Evolution Group
garrett.wagner@cpapracticeadvisor.com
TOO MUCH
AS MUCH AS things change, some things always stay the same. Even as we move into the
so called " new normal, " one thing remains constant: working too much. Many accountants
always have, and seemingly always will, work long and stressful hours. Unfortunately, for
most of us who work these long hours, our mental state passes the level of enjoyment in
what we are doing and falls steadily into the what one would define as workaholic status.
Not only are we familiar with our
annual long hours of busy season
each year, many of us now are stuck
working long hours every month of
the year, without fail. We seem to be
forever trapped in a repeating cycle of
our own making. As we move into the
new normal, now is the time for you
to break free of these old habits and
learn a new skill that you have been
resisting for far too long... delegation.
For those of you who are not
experts in delegation, before we go
any further, let us define this key
term for you.
Delegation is the assignment of
authority to another person to carry
out specific activities. It is the process
of distributing and entrusting work to
another person. Delegation is one of
the core concepts of leadership
LONG ROAD
The term workaholic was first coined
in 1971 by a psychologist, Wayne
Oates, who defined the term as a
compulsion, or the uncontrollable
need, to work incessantly. Since then,
and with much study and research
done, workaholics have been labeled
to contain an assortment of common
traits. They are people who struggle
to not work, and feel compelled to
work due to internal pressures they
place upon themselves. They have
constant thoughts about work even
when not working. They work far
beyond what is required or expected
of them. Does any of this sound
familiar to you?
It is important to note that a key
difference exists between workaholics
and those who truly enjoy working.
Now you may be thinking of someone
you work with as you read this article
and are wondering, are they really a
workaholic or do they actually love
what they do? To understand which
side of the coin they land on, the key
difference between those two definitions
is the underlying motivation for
the behavior. Workaholics are driven
by negative emotions, like anxiety and
fear, whereas those who love their job
are driven by joy and excitement.
Unfortunately for many of us
accountants, we fall into the real world
and clinical definition of workaholics
far too often. We are caught up in
the cycle of deadline after deadline,
always afraid to let someone down
out of our own insecurities of letting
people down or not getting the job
done, even if the expectations we set
for ourselves, or perceive others have
set for us, are unrealistic. Alas, the
high rate of workaholics in the profession
is one of the aspects that drives
millennials and younger generations
away from being excited about becoming
accountants. For those of us in this
millennial generation, we have seen
too many people we've worked with
putting in long hours without reward,
and we don't want to have the same
fate. It's not all hopeless though. Let's
turn to the positives and review what
can be done to change this cycle as we
move into the new world if we wish to
not repeat the mistakes of the past,
with our new favorite word, delegation.
BREAKING THE CYCLE
Letting go of the fixation to always be
working starts with your intentional
decision to change your mindset
and behavior. Accepting your own
self, and accepting the fact that you
will be accepted at work and by your
friends no matter how much or often
you work, starts with how your treat
yourself. Once you accept that you
can and need to change your own
perspective, you then need to decide
what at work you can and should
delegate away. This is the easy part,
because it seems that everyone, no
matter how much they work, should
be able to think of at least five things
that can be delgated away. Once you
have decided what will be delegated
away to free up your time for more
critical purposes, then it is on you
to make that plan happen.
When you delegate work away
you need to do more than just send a
text message of " do this " to someone
else. Communication is necessary,
so sending texts to send away tasks
probably won't work out for anyone.
You will need to provide both clear
instructions and guidance to the
person to whom you are delegating
these tasks. The good news, however,
is you can spend a little more time here
doing some work to help you ease into
letting go of more work.
Finally, the key to successfully
delegating away tasks is to avoid
the dreaded reverse delegation. This
normally happens when the person
delegating away the task feels an
internal fear that if they don't do that
task they will not be valued by others.
It does not usually actually relate to
a rational belief about the ability of
others to get the work done, it is an
irrational belief that if they don't do it,
others will look down on them.
Will you be doomed to feeling
stressed every day grinding away at
yet another task, afraid to delegate the
work away, or are you finally ready to
change your behaviors? No better time
has existed to make changes happen
than today. As we deal with this time
of disruption and adjust to the new
normal on a daily basis, use this time
of disruption to change your behaviors.
Letting go of stress and work can
provide you new freedom to do more
of the things you truly love. ■
SEPTEMBER 2021 ■ www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com
15
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september2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of september2021
